Butterfly effect
by Readorcetics
Summary: In a chaotic system, an insignificant change can have enormous consequences. And what is life if not chaotic ? Marineford. OS. T for very lightly graphic violence.


Enjoy !

* * *

He was too late. As he got up from the fall, the boat crashing behind him with the Impel Down escapees, all smiling at the thought of saving _him_ , he saw he was too late. Too late. Too … late.

How ? HOW ? How was he too late to save _him_ ? He was supposed to arrive on time, save _him_ and then they would party, share stories and eat meat ! _He_ was **not** supposed to die. Not now, not ever. _He_ was supposed to see him complete his dream and at the same time complete _his_ dream. How could _he_ do that if he was gone ?

At that instant, the world had already changed. Something had happened to delay Monkey D. Luffy from rescuing his brother. What ? No one would ever know, the little and apparently insignificant event forgotten in the pages of History. But everyone would know about what followed, about what this delay awoke. Because this delay started what would later be called "The first day of the New Age". Because those few minutes started something that few men have the potential to achieve alone and among those, fewer still achieve it. It started a revolution.

At first, it was a cry. An anguished cry, a desperate cry which came from the throat of the young boy. Then it was the silence, which lasted an eternity. The cry was heard even louder. As it stopped and the silence got heavier and heavier, the pirates felt it, the Marines felt it, anyone and everyone watching the event from afar felt it: something significant would happen soon. Something with the potential to change the world as they knew it.

That something was the mind of the young boy breaking. Confronted to a reality he was not prepared for, already weakened by his recent ordeals, his mind broke under the pressure and was instantly reforged in something darker. Harsher. More violent. Geared toward one goal: destructing the opposition, purging the world of the one responsible for _his_ death. His devil fruit awakened too, and his Haki followed suit. Not a second later, all the weaker Marines were passed out and drooling on the ground. The Pirates were slightly less affected because the rage was not directed at them but many still fell to the ground in a great crash.

At the same time, the more powerful people in the world all felt the same primal fear. At that moment they all realized with a dawning horror they had simultaneously created not one but two perfect killing machines: Monkey D. Garp and Monkey D. Luffy. Both grandfather and grandson started attacking all the Marines they could without any restraint. The first was weeping for both his grandsons, the second for his brother. Both were crying openly as they did so but their punches still shattered skulls as if skulls were mere eggs. Soon, they were covered in blood. Not a drop of it was their own.

Through it all, tears marred their cheeks.

 **BE**

Still, no one reacted for a few moments. Because, despite all their experience, all their instincts born of a thousand battles, they all knew they would not last more than mere seconds against the monsters in human form.

When said monsters started to orient themselves towards the three Admirals, a pirate finally reacted. Whitebeard howled to the sky and time flowed again. The call to arms was immediately answered and thousands of pirates turned as one towards Marineford, towards the Marines themselves and, with hate in their eyes, they charged. They charged as one and the first rows of Marines fell before the tidal wave of body coming at them without any resistance. The battle for Marineford started.

The bigger players had by then chosen a camp, so they fought for it, with no holds barred. They understood the importance of what was happening.

Impressively, even with the Marines having the homefield advantage, they were pushed back by the sheer ferociousness their enemies displayed. Each pirate was borderline suicidal and their attacks were born of desperation. They fought like trapped animals because they felt like it and they were so much more dangerous for it.

 **BE**

Peace wasn't coming. Every one present knew it. The one person in the world who could have stopped the massacre, the one woman whose voice still registered in the hazed mind of Mugiwara, was fighting alongside him and encouraging him to continue, offering her unwavering support to his cause freely and voluntarily. Her beloved had lost a brother and she would eradicate the impudent wretches who had done it or had had any part in allowing it.

Through it all, tears of rage marred her cheeks.

 **BE**

Whitebeard would have been laughing if he was not too occupied crying. No father should outlive his son. _He_ was gone but by executing _him_ , the Marines had signed their doom. It was obvious to him. The Monkey family was currently unstoppable, a fact made evident by how Garp the Hero was handling the three Admirals at once as if they were rookies. Soon, Aokiji was dispatched, his body falling to the ground and staying still. His two colleagues were forced to retreat and the fight between the Hero and the remaining Admirals disappeared behind the Marines' Headquarters.

Really, the sight would have been worth a laugh but he didn't think he would be able to laugh for a long time. So he cried, and tried to deal with the grief and the guilt by killing yet another Marine. He may not have been in his prime but he was still a monster on the battlefield, the hundreds of Marines dead in a clear path behind him were proof of that, their torn bodies a grim reminder of what he could do. He was revered as the strongest man in the world and today he would prove that title had not been given in jest.

Through it all, tears of sadness marred his cheeks.

 **BE**

Marco would have been gawking, had he not been openly crying. The normally unflappable man had just seen the impossible so his reaction could be excused. _His_ little brother had just awakened all three forms of Haki and pummeled Doflamingo five feets under the ground as if it was a simple task. The blood and lack of sound coming from the crater were telling.

Still, he had a task to carry, and so he continued on, killing Marines in drove, none of his usual restraint present in the way his fists swung.

Through it all, tears of grief marred his cheeks.

 **BE**

Blackbeard was scared. The Mugiwara kid was clearly aiming for him and appeared to be many times more powerful than anyone that could have helped the traitor survive. Not that many would have, as he was bitterly aware of at the moment.

So he fled. Or tried to, at least. For each step he took, the kid ran ten. For each meter he ran, the kid jumped dozens. For each Marine that jumped outside his path to safety, a hundred died under the kid's fists.

Through it all, a grimace of fear could be seen on his face.

 **BE**

Chief-Admiral Sengoku could only watch as his plans crumbled to dust before his very eyes. He had been so sure executing _him_ early was a good idea. Now the Marines were paying for his arrogance.

He did not order the transponder snails to stop the video feed: the damage was already done and only a heavily broadcasted Marine victory, as impossible as that event appeared to be at the moment, would be able to fix it.

He had not yet joined the battle, still trying to ensure a Pirate defeat through means of strategy but each passing second was proving him more wrong than the last.

Through it all, of feeling of dread was building up in his mind.

 **BE**

And then the young boy reached the traitor. In an incredible display of coordination, everyone else stopped to watch the coming confrontation. They all knew in their very soul this would be the decisive fight of the war, the one that would decide the issue of the day.

The rubber boy was silent. He had not uttered a word since he had seen _he_ was gone. He had become a cold killing machine, butchering his opposition without any form of restraint.

On the contrary, the Warlord-candidate was screaming in fright, offering a disguting sight to the eyes. That it not to say he was hopeless though, giving as much as he got hit with.

With how brutal the fight was, no one was surprised when it finished just as quickly as it had started. Mugiwara managed to slip a punch past the guard of the former Whitebeard pirate and it obliterated the latter of the two. Teach fell to the ground with a heavy "thud" and did not move after that. Silence reigned in the bay of Marineford, as if no one was quite sure of what had just happened, of what they had just witnessed.

Several seconds later, the broken body of Admiral Akainu flew through the Marines' Headquarters, coming directly from the other side of the imposing building. No sooner had it landed than Garp the First stepped through the newly made opening in the wall. He surveyed the battlefield and quickly zeroed on the still form of Blackbeard. A demented grin then adorned his face and his raised his fist high, bellowing a great victory cry, echoing Whitebeard's earlier one.

Once again, it was a shout howled to the sky that restarted the world. And, just as it was a shout that had started the battle for Marineford, a shout had now ended it.

 **BE**

No one would ever know what had delayed the ship coming from Impel Down. No one would ever care for the butterfly that had changed the wind and the course of Time. But everyone that was old enough to understand what happened on that fateful day would often think "What if ?".


End file.
